Then what explains why the very new growth on some of my plants, especially my calomondin orange tree, would be almost yellow while the temps have flucuated so much, then that very same growth turned green along with new growth as soon as the temps stableized for over a week? Now that the temps have dropped back quite a bit again for the past few days,50's by day and 40's by night, the new growth coming in along with some of the new and old growth on my denias is turning yellow again and fast? These same plants turn green again, once the warmth comes back? Warm nights and warm days on a consistant basis. Is this a fertilzer problem, or the weather to blame? If the drastic changes in weather, from greenhouse to homes, from outdoors to inside are the culprit behind defficiencies, then it is not a cultural problem nor the fertilizer right? Please unconfuse me. It is not a watering issue for sure, since I have them in the gritty mix. Last year when temps were stable in June and it rained everyday, my plants prospered! So, is FP going to be a problem in drastic temp changes? Is it a urea based product? Should it work WELL even with these changes, or will it be locked up in the soil until favorable temps return? Thanks...

Most warm-season veggie seeds like warmth to germinate but can grow on in cooler conditions. But I think 50F may be pushing it for tomatoes and such. When the natural gas prices went up last year, I dropped the thermostat down. I've started seeds for years in the basement, and I did notice that last year, when the temps were down in the mid 50s, stuff grew, but it grew a lot slower--and some of the tomatoes looked a little purplish and chilled. (The perennials were fine with the cooler temps.) However, I didn't attempt to germinate warm-season veggies down there--for that I use the radiators (flats are first tucked into tall kitchen garbage bags with a couple of sticks to keep the plastic off of the soil). I don't think you necessarily need a heat mat, but you probably do need a source of (ideally bottom) heat, at least for germination.

There are other interest videos at that chow tip site. I'm going to try the spaghetti idea next time...I think it will be easier to do in a large skillet anyway. I never have used the huge quantities it says to for boiling pasta though and have never had a problem with it. The only new idea for cooking pasta I have tried recently is to cook lasagna noodles in a 9X13 dish and lay them out and poor boiling water over then...leave for 30 minutes. I had a problem with that though, the noodles stuck together so if you try that, make sure you jiggle them around a bit so they don't stick. Luckily only a couple stuck and it didn't present much of a problem in my lasagna. Usually I don't even cook the noodles first but this time I was using whole wheat pasta which I wasn't sure about.

It was mentioned that the water stays in the water heater for a long time, but is that true? Consider this, the Plumbing code limits a shower head to 2.5gal/min and typical shower is 8 to 10 min so a typical shower consumes 20 to 25gal of water. (Assuming you only have one shower head and not the new fangled shower head, rain head & body sprays). The census bureau tells us there is an average of 3.5ppl per household, and I imagine even that 1/2 size character takes a shower every day, so thats four showers at 20-25gal per shower, or 80 to 100gals just for the showers. The plumbing code also limits the temperature of the domestic hot water supply to 125degF, yet most ppl like their showers at 95 to 115degF so for the sake of discussion let us say the shower is approximately an 85% hot & 15% cold mix, so the showers are consuming 68 to 85gals of hot water and a typical single family home has a 60gal water heater, so just for the showers alone, all the water in the water heater is being exchanged at least once every day. Of course we have not even considered how much hot water is used at the bathroom lavatories, the kitchen sink, dishwasher and the laundry. The bottom line, the length of time that the water sits in the water heater would be about the same as if you went away overnight, then came back and ran water out of the cold water pipe....and who knows how many days that water has sat in the municipal water storage tank or the municipal water mains before it reaches your house....LOL,,I'll give you a hint, generally the municipal water tanks are sized so they can provide up to three days water supply in the event of a power failure. Now let us examine the cost of the water. I just checked my water bill (an here in Massachusetts all our utilities are above the national average). The water company charges $2.70 per 100cubic feet of water, which would then be $0.027 cu/ft and one cubic foot of water is 7.5gallons. We now divide $0.027per gallon by 7.5gallon and we find that we pay $0.0036 per gallon, or approximately 3 gallon for a penny. Now, your kitchen faucett is connected to a 1/2" pipe and a 1/2" pipe holds 1 gal for every 98' of pipe. Now lets say you have a very large house and your water heater is located on the opposite end from your kitchen. It is still doubtful if the hot water pipe is over 100 feet long, but again, just for the sake of discussion, let us assume the pipe twists and turns through the house and its 150' long. That is still approximately 2gal of water maximum at a cost of $0.0072 or in simple terms 2/3 of a penny. In conclusion, you can probably find enough change under the couch cushions to offset what your loosing at the kitchen faucett per annum.....LOL